An East Tennessee woman who was already on probation in a federal fraud case is now charged with deceiving the Small Business Administration into giving her a Paycheck Protection Program loan for a bogus business and using the money to get plastic surgery in Florida and spend a week recuperating at the Trump International Beach Resort, according to court records.
Leslie Danielle Bethea, 40, of Surgionsville, Tennessee, was charged in US District Court with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a loan she obtained as part of a relief plan $800 billion Covid authorized by Congress to help small business owners continue to pay their employees during the pandemic.
According to the indictment, Bethea filed false tax documents with the Small Business Administration in March 2021 to obtain a $20,805 PPP loan.
“On the e-application…Leslie Bethea fraudulently stated that she was the sole proprietor of a marketing consulting services business which made $99,865 a year when in truth and in fact, as she well knew, Leslie Bethea didn’t have any company earning that amount,” U.S. Secret Service Senior Special Agent Thomas Whitehead wrote in a criminal complaint.
“Leslie Bethea has fraudulently stated that in the past five years she has not been convicted, pleaded guilty or started any form of parole or probation for fraud,” Whitehead wrote. “In fact, Leslie Bethea pleaded guilty and was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud on September 26, 2019… (and) was actively serving a supervised release sentence for this conviction at the time of the application. electronic. ”
Bethea was on federal probation for identity theft and creating fake credit cards when she tricked the US Small Business Administration into giving her a Paycheck Protection Program loan for a bogus business.
Whitehead said in the complaint that Bethea obtained the PPP loan no questions asked and deposited the loan proceeds into its Knoxville bank account. She then used that money to travel to Aventura, Florida in April 2021.
While at Aventura, Bethea “received elective cosmetic surgery services totaling $5,500” from Dolls Plastic Surgery over a three-day period, according to Whitehead’s complaint. The agent did not disclose details of this transaction in the complaint.
Bethea spent five days at Trump International Beach Resort, a luxury hotel in Sunny Isles, Florida, while recovering from surgery, using the Covid Relief Plan loan to pay the $2,834 bill, a writes the agent.
The agent wrote that Bethea lied to the US probation office during the same period, claiming that “her only monthly cash inflow for April 2021 was $200 from her ex-husband… (and) has said “none” when asked to identify any expenses in April 2021 that exceeded $500.
another ppp loan fraud
“Bethea said she did not travel outside the (East Tennessee) district without permission in April 2021, even though she traveled to Florida for elective plastic surgery and stayed in a luxury hotel in Florida for five days using the proceeds of the fraud. got a PPP loan,” Whitehead wrote.
Bethea was on federal probation after serving a two-year prison sentence for her role in a 2018 fraud ring in which she and “unindicted co-conspirators” stole the identities of dozens of people, used emboss the plastic cards” to create credit cards using these stolen identities and have used these credit cards to pay for over 100 flights across the United States, hotel bills, restaurant trips and shopping sprees shopping, according to court records.
FBI: Drug dealer also received COVID money
Bethea isn’t the only East Tennessee felon now charged with deceiving the Small Business Administration and defrauding the agency’s administered Covid relief plan, records show.
Antonio Dewayne Menifee, a convicted Chattanooga drug dealer, is also accused of submitting false forms to the agency to obtain a PPP loan for a non-existent construction company in April 2021. When agents in September 2021 sought to execute a search of Menifee’s home as part of an investigation into the $11,485 PPP loan he received, they discovered cocaine, a stolen gun, ammunition, plastic bags used to wrap drugs, digital scales used to weigh drugs and $15,000 in drug money, FBI Agent Coley Vincent Warner wrote in a criminal complaint.
Menifee was convicted in 2002 in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga for conspiracy to sell cocaine and firearms. He served about a decade behind bars before being released, but then repeatedly violated the terms of his probation by using drugs, lying to authorities and threatening violence against his wife, records show.
drug dealer ppp loan fraud charge
Menifee was returned to prison in 2017 following these violations and served an additional 27 months. It is unclear from the court record if he was still on federal probation when he applied for and was granted a PPP loan in 2021.
Bethea and Menifee are now behind bars awaiting further legal action in their respective cases.
Their cases are part of what the Justice Department has called an “epic scam” of COVID relief funding that has taken place since Congress began authorizing funds to help businesses and citizens affected by the coronavirus pandemic. 2020.
An NBC News investigation reported last year showed that as much as $80 billion of the $800 billion authorized under the PPP was distributed to fraudsters in the United States and abroad and used to pay for fancy cars, mansions and expensive vacations.
